Aggressive Action
Sharing The Misery
Sasuke wanted, no, needed answers. His new eyes were irritating in more ways than one, and that just couldn't go on. Certainly having the sharingan was an improvement over not having it, but he didn't remember his father ever mentioning that it would hurt, nor that there were a host of other abilities that Uchiha could use.
There was no way he was just going to tell the Hokage what had happened to his eyes. Lord Sarutobi undoubtedly knew already, and if he hadn't called Sasuke in for an audience yet, it wasn't going to happen. Asking for one would lead to frustration and a waste of time, so he was going to start somewhere else. Somewhere he should have begun with.
Finding his centre, Sasuke shrugged off his memories of 'that night' and entered the district where most of the Uchiha used to live. They said it was still haunted by the restless ghosts of Itachi's family, and being the mindless sheep they were the people of Konoha refused to reinhabit it. Sasuke didn't care one way or another, but right now it made his job that much easier.
There, that was it. His home. Fugaku Uchiha's house was surprisingly small for a clan leader's, and certainly nothing compared to Hiashi Hyuga's mansion, but it was grand nevertheless. Gothic architecture unique to the street and a sprawling lawn marked it as the home of a powerful man. Though there was one more powerful still who once lived within its confines.
Sasuke froze in front of the door. Could he really do this? He'd sworn to never return until Itachi was slain and his clan avenged, but this was an emergency. Surely his family would understand…
He pushed the front door open. The hinges, iron rusted with years of disuse and merciless rain, gave way at the slightest touch, and the thick slab of wood fell back. The door landed with a flat bumping noise, scaring Sasuke. The young Uchiha leaped backwards, landing on the roof of the house across the street, and he forced himself to calm down.
'It's okay, that man isn't watching my every move. He had to leave the Leaf years ago, I'm safe now, he can't hurt me, there's nothing in there that can hurt me.' Sasuke wondered who he was trying to fool.
Inside, the dust lay thick on every surface, the wood rotting through and the furniture falling apart at the seams. Cobwebs dangled from the ceiling, coating Sasuke's cherished memories with dark recollections. Stubbornly refusing to admit defeat to his older brother, Sasuke soldiered on. He almost faltered at the stairs, but with effort he made himself climb the rickety structure. Each step creaked as he stepped on it, old wood protesting his presence and bending dangerously under his weight. Down the hallway, past his old bedroom, past his parent's room, all the way to the end of the hallway. There it was…
The door to Itachi's chamber was painted black by the man himself, setting it apart from the mahogany red of the other doors on the second floor. On the upper half, a beautifully detailed Uchiha fan had a jagged 'X' slashed through the wood with an ANBU katana. The lower half of the door had a contender for 'most ironic statement ever' scrawled on it with a pencil.
'Long live Konoha.'
It was faded and barely visible, but the mangekyo sharingan could pick out not only the words, but that they were written by a male, aged between thirteen and fifteen, impeccable handwriting but with a hint of urgency. Right handed, used his left hand, probably because of injury.
'This is it,' Sasuke thought, staring at the door that represented his greatest fears and darkest ambitions. 'I have to open this door, there's no way around it. Time to see what these things I've got in my head are.'
Another contender for 'most ironic statement ever'.
Sasuke opened the door quickly, his hand darting out, turning the knob and throwing it open. Then he fell back in fear, racing back to the far end of the hallway and preparing a barrage of flaming shuriken to skewer the beasts lurking inside. His heart was pounding with adrenaline, but nevertheless Sasuke entered, more alert and tense than he'd ever been before in his life.
Itachi's old room could be summed up in one word: spartan. There was a futon in the corner, a short dresser on the corner and his closet, with extra ninja uniforms hanging on hangars. There was nothing to suggest that it was once the dwelling of the most feared ninja in the Land of Fire.
'Think, Sasuke, THINK! Where would it be?' He thought quickly, his eyes darting left and right lie searchlights. 'What's the fastest way to search a rogue shinobi's belongings?'
With surprising strength, Sasuke ripped the door off of Itachi's closet, pulling out the two uniforms and formal suit and tearing through their pockets. A few coins, a spare kunai, but nothing incriminating. Throwing them in a pile in the middle of the room, Sasuke moved on to the futon. The little bed fell apart under his blade and spilled its stuffing on the floor, but it turned out to be nothing more than stiff fabric. His sharingan informed him that the futon was uncomfortable to sleep on.
The dresser was rifled through at superhuman speeds, drawers slamming in and out faster and faster as Sasuke grew more and more desperate. Not trapped, not locked, and no contents. Whatever had been in here, it had been taken with Itachi after the massacre. Disgusted, Sasuke picked the whole thing up and slammed it on the ground in the middle of the room as hard as he could. The dresser exploded in slivers of wood, sending up a cloud of dust.
He sank to his knees, on the verge of tears. His eyes were stinging, but Sasuke hardly noticed. What the hell was he supposed to do? A whirl of emotions flashed through him, but mostly it was confusion. What was happening? Why him? Why did Itachi do what he did? What were his real motives? Testing his capacity, as he said? Or to get these 'super' sharingan?
A single tear of blood dripped from Sasuke's eye and trailed down his face. It fell to the ground, in slow motion to his enhanced eyesight, and landed next to a sheet of paper.
Paper! Sasuke dove for it and snatched the glimmer of green paper from the ground. It must have been in a secret compartment in the dresser, probably a false bottom. There was a picture on the front of a sharingan with black lines covering the eye, one bloody tear dripping from the corner. The title proclaimed, in bold lettering, "SO, YOU ACCIDENTALLY KILLED YOUR BEST FRIEND? YOUR GUIDE TO THE MANGEKYO SHARINGAN!"
Under that was an untidy scrawl in black sharpie reading, "Property of: SHISUI UCHIHA— Don't you dare touch this, Itachi!"
'Perfect!' Sasuke mentally crowed. So that's what his dojutsu was called: the mangekyo sharingan. Flipping the pamphlet open, he memorized the contents perfectly with his eyes and swore to review it later, when he wasn't standing in the bedroom of the man he'd sworn to kill.
He fled, dropping the brochure and flickering out of the Uchiha district as fast as humanly possible. Something there gave him the creeps, and it wasn't just the memories of his parents' deaths.
XXX
Itachi Uchiha watched his beloved younger brother leave the house and race down the road. It gave him a warm feeling to see his brother so improved from the rather ineffectual ninja he'd once been.
This new development was troubling, though. How had Sasuke discovered the way to unlock the next stage of the sharingan's mutation? It was probably an accident, but Itachi couldn't help but suspect that there was someone else's hand in it.
Did he know he would eventually go blind?
Itachi was faced with his own problems as well. His excuse for leaving Sasuke alive was his hope to one day entice him with the mangekyo sharingan's power, and then kill him and use his eyes to augment his own. Madara of all people could understand that sort of power play. But that was never his intent, and now Sasuke had put him in a tight spot. There was only so long he could pretend to not have noticed, and then the Akatsuki would begin to suspect.
Decisions, decisions…
He could feel the approaching chakra signatures of a squad of jonin, so Itachi resolved to confront his younger brother at a later date. He bowed his head, closed his eyes, and activated the teleportation technique just as Asuma Sarutobi got a good look at him.
To the Hokage's son, the man in the signature cloak of bloody rain appeared to dissolve into a murder of crows.
XXX
Usually, it was simple enough for Naruto to track Sakura down. Girls with pink hair really stood out in crowds, which the source of numerous comments from Tenten about how she gave kunoichi a bad name, and really, die that mass of cotton candy black or something, Sakura! But today, despite speaking to the older kunoichi, as well as Ino and Iruka, Naruto couldn't seem to find her after the disaster at the bridge. He figured that the Old Man might be able to point him in the right direction, but wasting the Hokage's time had gotten his ass kicked out of fourth story windows before. Safer to just wander around until he ran into her.
Then, he had a brainwave. Why not ask her parents? As far as he knew, Sakura still lived with them, and probably told them all about where she was going, and whether she had a nice day, and they restocked the refrigerator when the milk was empty...
Ahem.
Now, after giving Ino the third degree and a generous helping of Naruto-style harassment, he was happily skipping off to speak with Sakura's parents. They lived in a middle-class home in the civilian suburbs, though Ino said her father had once been a genin before a career-ending chunin exam. Something about fighting a ninjutsu user who used enough steam to flash-fry his left leg, and then went on to win the whole third round.
He knocked politely on the door and waited for some time before someone answered. She was a tall, haggard looking woman with close-cropped blonde hair and a tired frown set permanently on her face. On seeing Naruto, the frown deepened into a scowl, and she made to shut the door in his face. Naruto quickly stuck one foot into the doorjamb and waited while his teammate's mother tried fruitlessly to wait out her unwanted visitor. When that didn't work, she opened the door and stepped out, towering imperiously over the twelve-year-old boy.
"What?" Mebuki Haruno asked briefly, evidently hoping to be rid of him as soon as possible.
"Oh, uh, hi Sakura's Mom!" Naruto exclaimed. The Haruno matriarch developed a twitch over her left eye, but Naruto pretended not to notice. "I was wondering if you could tell me where Sakura is, 'cause I wanted to spar with her and work on a technique I was trying to–"
"She's not home," answered Mebuki flatly. "She'll show up for your little ninja powwow tomorrow."
'Go away'.
"Oh, I see," Naruto muttered dejectedly.
"Hey, honey!" came a masculine voice from the depths of Sakura's house. "Sakura wants to know where the extra towels are!"
Mrs. Haruno froze, her body unmoving but her mind racing. On the one hand, she could just get rid of the little demon and Sakura would never be the wiser, but his foot was still blocking the door. It would be easier, albeit more painful, to just let him in and try to ignore them, safety of her daughter be damned.
"They're in the linen closet!" she hollered back. Crouching to meet Naruto's eyes, Mebuki gave the jinchuriki a look that could give a lesser boy a heart attack. "Go in, talk to her, and get out of my house," she fairly snarled. Naruto nodded pleasantly and ducked neatly past the woman, blithely shrugging off her glare o' doom. Now he knew where Sakura got it, volatile little girl that she was. Inside, the house was just as completely unremarkable as it was outside, though a lot more spacious than anywhere Naruto had ever lived. A quick glance in the kitchen (they had an entire room, just for the kitchen!) confirmed that they did indeed restock the milk as soon as it ran out, as there was a full jug in the fridge and an empty one on the counter. Guiltily, Naruto shut the white metal door and turned around... and promptly smacked face-first into a giant of a man.
"WAAAAH!" he shrieked, jumping backwards and landing on the marble counter behind him. The man was massive, more than six feet tall and with a moustache to match. His hair was a dark pink explosion, dripping down his face and into his moustache, and his eyes were the same intense jade as Sakura's. He carried a sturdy wooden cane in his left hand, the handle engraved with a pouncing tiger.
"Hey there," he rumbled. "You must be Naruto Uzumaki. Sakura shouts about you sometimes."
His voice was deep and rough, but kind, like the Old Man's. Naruto took an instant liking to the ex-shinobi. "Nice to meet you, mister," he said emphatically, sliding off the counter and unobtrusively replacing the kunai he'd drawn in his weapon pouch.
Sakura's father laughed quietly. "You're my daughter's teammate; please, call me Kizashi," the man insisted. Naruto reddened and stammered an excuse about having to get going and have a nice day sir, so Kizashi politely stepped aside and let Naruto go upstairs. As the blond disappeared upstairs, he let out a soft chuckle.
XXX
When Sakura sensed Naruto approaching her house, whistling gaily and dancing in the streets, she knew she had to make up her mind quickly. Naruto's latest act of unbridled pervertedness deserved revenge on a grand scale, which meant either killing him as dead as Kakashi and the Hokage would allow (probably not all that much) or something subtle. Sakura decided on 'subtle', because it was that much more satisfying, and opted to quickly finish her ritual.
"... Jashin is all, death is the final embrace, in the next life know peace," she murmured, looking down at the innocent little critter lying on her floor. "Amen." With a quick slicing motion her tanto slit the squirrel's throat, and a small fountain of blood spilt out on to her floor. Nodding in satisfaction, Sakura stood up and cracked her knuckles. Time to get started.
She waited until her mother demanded that Naruto leave, then called down, "Daddy! Where are the extra towels?" Her father, she guessed correctly, had no idea in the slightest, and delivered the request to his wife. Sakura's smile stretched wide as she imagined the look on her mom's face and Naruto's confused, naïve expression. Mebuki tersely replied that they were in the linen closet, like she didn't know that already, and was forced to allow Naruto in.
She swept around the room, thankful for the diversion her father gave whilst she swept the squirrel corpse into her closet and waved her scythe over the remaining blood. The blessed metal absorbed the liquid, regenerating the scratches in its surface with cannibalized iron. She was just tossing the weapon on her bed and adopting a bored expression when Naruto kicked her door open and glomped onto her with a cheesy grin.
"Hey there, Sakura!" he shouted in her ear, and Sakura was suddenly struck with the familiar urge to kill something slowly. She pressed it down and returned Naruto's hug with bone-crushing force.
"Naruto! What'cha doin' here, huh?" she asked cheerfully, ignoring the ominous sound of cracking ribs.
"I.. wanted to... spar with you... maybe.. ramen... can't breathe..."
"Well, why didn'tcha say so?" Sakura went on, releasing the hug but slapping an arm around his shoulders and shaking vigorously. "Why don't we head on down to that shack you like eating at, and then we can beat the s*** out of each other?"
"Rea-?"
"LANGUAGE, YOUNG LADY!" shouted Mebuki. "JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A KUNOICHI DOES NOT MEAN YOUR MANNERS GO OUT THE WINDOW!"
"Sakura, Naruto, gentlemen do not swear," trailed up Kizashi's voice, with just a trace of mischief, "but those who do should join the Sir-Cuss! You get it? The circu– Ouch, darling!"
XXX
"Naruto, welcome back!" Teuchi cried, looking up from his book behind the register. "And who's your lovely young friend here?"
"Sakura, this is Teuchi. Teuchi, Sakura. Less talking more ramen!" Naruto pulled up a seat at the counter and sat down, gesturing at the one next to him for his femme to have. Sakura took the chair graciously and surveyed Ichiraku Ramen with a critical eye. The whole place smelled of the vile, salty vomit that Naruto ate six times a day. It took every ounce of self control that she once possessed not to lose her nerve and slaughter everyone in the vicinity. Nevertheless, ignoring the pleas of her sensitive nose to leave and never return, Sakura smiled politely and ordered pork.
"I need to to teach me something," said Naruto seriously, as they waited for their orders.
"Mmm."
"You know my, ah, sand ability?"
Sakura gave him a flat look. "The one that tore me to shreds while you were staring at my ass?" she deadpanned.
Naruto winced. "It was an accident!"
"Yeah."
"Anyways," he coughed, "I need some techniques to control that stuff before I start killin' people who don't grow back!"
"I have no idea what you think I can do, but do go on," Sakura offered, amused.
"So, I was thinkin', maybe you could help my chakra control? I need more control before I can use bajillions of little bits of sand at once, so, uh..."
Sakura stared at him for a second. "You're asking me for a favour? Why should I do anything for you?"
Naruto couldn't think of an answer immediately, but when he did, he smiled brilliantly and put his chopsticks down. "Because, we're teammates," he told her gently, "and we have to watch each other's backs. I'd do the same for you, any day of the week."
"... Naruto, if I do this for you, you have to promise–"
"YES, YES, ANYTHING!" shouted Naruto, enthusiasm bleeding from his pores and making his hair stand on end. He looked like a puppy shagging a frisbee.
She knew this was a bad, bad idea, but she was powerless to stop herself from agreeing to teach Naruto how to do the tree walking exercise.
XXX
Kakashi decided to just stay in bed that day. It was too stressful to get out of bed and have to deal with the little brats again, so he was just going to lie there and hope Sarutobi didn't come smashing down the door.
"Dynamic Entry!"
*Smash!*
'Oh God no, please, anyone but–"
"My rival!" came a voice filled with exuberance. "I was informed by our youthful comrade Asuma and the even more youthful Kurenai that today—"
"Gaaaaaai..." Kakashi droned, propping himself up on his elbow. "Get out of house and let me sleep in."
"That is not very youthful of you, my eternal rival," Gai replied. "Come with me, that we might meet your genin team and see how they have progressed under your 'hip' tutelage!"
"No thanks. I don't want to die this morning. Akane gets laid in the next chapter, you see." He was sweating now, looking anywhere but at the green monstrosity that just put a hole in his wall.
"Ah! So they are filled with the fires of youth, are they? Surely three new ninja cannot be such a challenge for my rival?" Gai's genjutsu-enhanced smile never wavered, though his eyes wavered with confusion.
"You'd be sur–... hey, Gai, I need a favor."
"How may I be of assistance?"
"What are Kurenai and Asuma doing today?"
"When last I saw them, they had finished copulating! But recently, I suspect they are relaxing."
'Too much information! This is good, though.' Kakashi chuckled. "Go get them, and have them and their genin team meet at the second ANBU practice ground in an hour."
"I thought that was occupied?"
"Not anymore it isn't. You should come too, have Neji, Tenten and Lee join in the fun."
"As you say!" Gai cheered, sprinting off to Asuma's house so fast he left an afterimage. Perfect.
Kakashi smirked, satisfied, then flipped Icha Icha Paradise back open.
'Daisuke pushed her back onto the bed, his lust evident in his words as he growled her name. Akane winked saucily, her eyes deep and shining wetly, and pulled his pants down around his ankles, then allowed him to strip her quickly before their passion–'
"Heh."
XXX
The ANBU trained in artificially cultivated grasslands surrounded by woods and with a source of water for ninjutsu inside, like every other ninja in Konoha. However, there were significant differences. For one, they were much more durable than the average training ground. The village couldn't afford to replace so much terrain every time a large-scale earth or fire technique got out of control. For another, they had certain features designed to test tracking and teamwork during missions.
Mostly, they were designed with the intent to give one team a massive advantage over the other. A referee between matches could remotely configure traps for the defending or attacking team, and assaults on the lone structure had to be made uphill with no cover from incoming fire. In short, a ninja's nightmare. ANBU had to be ready for anything, so each location was equipped for maximum discomfort for one team and greatest sadistic enjoyment on the other. Kakashi, along with Agent Mouse, Agent Hawk and Agent Tiger had logged over a thousand hours on Ground Two, and now his little psycho's would know the joys of 'The Situation'.
There were twelve people there. First to arrive was Team Eight, with Hinata, Shino, Kiba and Kurenai. Then Team Ten, with Ino, Shikamaru, Choji and Asuma. Gai arrived with them, bringing his team. Lastly, almost half an hour late, was Team Seven. Kakashi made a point of arriving late, and there was a proud flush to his cheeks as he surveyed the livid genin.
"You're all late!" Kiba shouted, jumping out of a tree and pointing a finger accusingly at Team Seven. "Where do you get off telling us to be here, then standing us up?"
"Who cares?" Sasuke muttered. "We're here, let's get this over with."
"You must endeavour to be on time," replied Shino. "Why? Because your allies will rely on you to be there, and if you aren't they may start to distrust you."
"Kakashi suggested it," Naruto said proudly. "Well, not in words, but he keeps doing the same thing, and your jonin is supposed to be your role model, right?"
"Hardly," supplied Neji. "Your sensei teaches you what they see fit. Nevertheless, if Kakashi does not see fit to prioritize punctuality, who am I to question it?" Tenten nodded in agreement, but said nothing.
"Listen up!" Asume shouted, garnering the attention of everyone present except Sakura and Ino, who were engaged in a high-voltage staring contest.
"We're here to do a team training exercise that will test your combat abilities and improvisational skills." He lit up a cigarette and perched it between his lips. "There are four teams of three: Team Seven, Eight, Ten, and Gai has volunteered his genin to join us as well."
It didn't escape Naruto's notice that Team Gai looked half sullen and half bright green, but decided not to say anything.
"Now, the twelve of you will be split up into two groups. Group one will consist of Neji, Tenten, Lee, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Choji, Shikamaru and Ino." Asume smiled wryly at their shocked expressions. "Team two will be Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke."
"What the–!" Kiba hollered indignantly. "What gives?"
"You assume that this is a fighting exercise," Asuma said easily. "It could just as easily be a test of tracking or infiltration."
"But it's not," Neji cut in. "It's leadership."
"Correct!" Gai shouted, awkwardly embracing the Hyuga. Tenten stifled a snicker at her teammate's horrified expression, and Sakura joined in with full-blown guffaws when his younger clone jumped in on the other side, shouting about 'youthful perception'.
"See that tower?" Asuma pointed at the stone structure on the hill. "You have to prevent all of the members of Team Seven from reaching the third floor of that structure. How you do this isn't important, and you have several advantages. Firstly, this training ground is rigged with almost two thousand explosive tags, which can be detonated from the tower. As well, you will elect a leader, who you will have to obey absolutely."
"This seems rather unfair to them," mused Choji. "Kiba kinda had a point."
"It gets better," Kurenai said with a grin. "Your leader not only has complete control over your team, but they can also command myself, Asuma, Kakashi and Gai. Essentially, that's eight genin and four jonin against them."
"Don't make me do too much," Kakashi muttered. "Life is too sweet to waste toadying to genin."
"Awesome!" grunted Sakura, cracking her knuckles and reaching into her voluminous robes for her tanto. Ino blinked, shaking her head and wondering what had just happened.
"There are some restrictions," Asuma said, rounding on Kakashi's team. "I've been told to tell you that, to even the playing field, you may not use quote, 'that sand technique, that black fire, and that genjutsu'. As well, Sakura, you are specifically forbidden from killing anyone. Even if they call you pinkie."
The pink haired girl pouted, sheathing the tanto with a muted click. At least she still had her scythe, and Jashin took tributes of fear as well as blood.
Three different clones of Kurenai appeared, much more detailed and realistic than the average doppelganger, and each walked off in a different direction. "I'll show you to where you'll start," each of them said. Team Seven disappeared, much to the relief of Kakashi.
"To the tower, where we will pick a most youthful leader and allow them to lead us to glorious victory!" Lee ran off.
XXX
"Who's the leader then?" Tenten asked.
"W-why not N-Neji?" Hinata said softly. "H-He's v-very experienced."
"He cannot," Shino said. "Why, you ask? Because he is the best fighter present, save our sensei. To use him otherwise would unnecessarily cripple our fighting force."
"Why not you?" Ino proposed. "You're very smart, if a little quiet."
"I-ah... N-no! No! I... can't..." the Hyuga heir muttered.
Nobody said anything for a few seconds. Then, as one, eleven heads turned towards Shikamaru.
"This is far too troublesome," the boy ground out. "Too much effort to do it... too much effort to say no... yes. Very well, I have a plan in mind."
"Do tell," Kiba said conversationally.
"Ideally, I would split up our resources as efficiently as possible, but I know next to nothing about our opponents." He looked expectantly at the jonin, but Asuma shook his head.
"In that case," Shikamaru went on, "I will keep Ino and Hatake here as our last line of defense. Hinata, your byakugan can see everywhere in the training ground, correct?" The pale-eyed girl nodded in affirmative. "You will relay information to me."
"I brought earpieces," Tenten supplied, holding out a plastic bag with the equipment inside. "Already calibrated and good to go."
Shikamaru distributed the radio devices and did a quick mic check, then spoke up. "Excellent. Then, we will operate in groups of three. Might, you take Lee and Kiba to fight Sakura. Yuhi, you will go with Tenten and Choji to fight Sasuke. Sarutobi, you have Neji and Shino on Naruto. Hinata will give you the directions. Clear out!"
XXX
Sasuke waited with Kurenai's watchful clone, no doubt observed by four all-seeing eyes to make sure he wasn't cheating. Not like he had anything to worry about, his graduating class was full of chumps. On the other hand, he thought that about Sakura, but now she had all the vulnerability of the earth itself. You could hit her... like that would do any good. Naruto too, so maybe there was worry to be had.
Some time later, the illusionary woman told him that the test was starting and vanished. Sasuke took a moment to get his bearings before leaving. Kurenai had directed him around a river to a knoll overlooking the whole setup. He had to give ANBU credit, he couldn't see the exploding tags buried in the ground. The tower was just a kilometer or so away, just visible from the hilltop, so off he went.
He was about halfway there when Choji Akimichi's inflated fist collided meatily with his face. He flew backwards, skimming the ground and carving a trench two feet deep with his body. When he stopped, he didn't bother to get back up.
"Are you okay?" Choji shouted, genuine concern lighting up his eyes. He'd never used his clan's techniques on another genin before, and it was kind of scary to see Sasuke just lying there in the dirt.
A massive violet arm, skeletal and radiating chakra, reached up from Sasuke's prone form and slammed into his chest. Before he knew what had happened, Choji had been smashed into the ground at frightening speeds. He passed out on impact, probably with a concussion. Immediately afterwards, a tan blur jumped out and grasped the larger boy by the scruff of the neck, disappearing behind the cover of a small copse.
Tenten was doing a better job of dealing with the panic than Kurenai was. The girl was already coming up with a strategy to best this gigantic foe, but Kurenai was horrified by the sheer nonchalance with which Sasuke had dealt with Choji. He hadn't even stood up before swatting him away with something she was dead certain wasn't a genjutsu.
"Report," came Shikamaru's tinny voice in her ear. She used a quick genjutsu to shield her reply from Sasuke, if he was listening.
"Choji is unconscious," the jonin hissed into her microphone. "Sasuke is armed with some kind of offensive taijutsu device, a bit like a Suna puppet. Hinata, keep an eye on us."
"I, uh, oooh, okay... Shikamaru, blow it!" Hinata shrieked. Far away, an explosion went off with bone-shattering force. Shikamaru belatedly muted her feed.
Tenten chucked a few shuriken at Sasuke from her cover, but the purple chakra shield deflected them all effortlessly. She watched, calculating weapon vectors and kinetic forces as Sasuke rose from the ground. The violet energy assembled itself in the recognizable shape of a human skeleton, towering over her with divine authority. Sasuke's gaze was focused a few feet to the left of her.
"Tenten," her earpiece buzzed. "Retreat. Yuhi will delay Sasuke for as long as possible. Hinata will direct you to Sarutobi to help with the fight against Naruto. Neji will supply you with information."
"Copy that," she replied dejectedly, replacing her sealing scrolls and nodded at Kurenai before taking off.
The red-eyed woman regarded Sasuke warily, the boy looking around for other threats. Delving into her own mind, she weaved one of her most powerful illusions around Sasuke, simultaneously pitting him against four phantom jonin and depleting him of the logic that would otherwise tell him it was a genjutsu. That was her talent, and not even the sharingan could defeat her.
Five hundred meters away, Hinata saw her sensei glow with pride, and she smiled.
XXX
Sakura moved through the forested area with what could only be called a flounce, her demeanour completely uncaring even as Kiba and Akamaru advanced menacingly. With a snarl, Akamaru bounced forward and latched his jaws over her thigh. Blood spurted from the wound in red ropes, and the femur cracked slightly. To Kiba and Lee's eternal confusion, she whipped out a metal disc and held it to her forehead.
"Jashin, grant me thy mercy for failing to deliver unto you this infidel's immortal soul," she chanted. "I shall redeem myself. Amen."
Sakura jabbed the immobile wolfhound in the neck, and Akamaru crumbled. She gently pried his jaws off her leg and carelessly tossed the body away. An indignant Kiba screamed something at her, and met a similar end at the end of her fist.
"Come out, come out, you sneaky ninja bastards!" she called, her eyes roaming the forest. "I don't have all day to just stand here!"
"Allow me to introduce myself," came a voice from behind her. Sakura spun around slowly to face none other than–
"I am the Blue Beast of Konoha, Rock Lee!" shouted Rock Lee.
"As much as I hate to be the voice of reason, your outfit is blue," said the slightly confused Jashinist. "Shouldn't you be the Green Beast?"
"I wanted to," Lee admitted sheepishly, "but that is my sensei's name. Perhaps some day I will change the colour of my uniform."
"Stylish," Sakura noted, before slamming a kick into the strange ninja's thigh. She hadn't expected him to retaliate, but Lee was fast enough to catch it on his forearm and strike for her shoulder. Ineffective, but apparently she needed to up her game.
"You're pretty good," said Sakura, rubbing her smarting shoulder. "I need to try harder against you." With that, she upped her speed a few notches and punched Lee in the stomach. Lee retaliated with the most halfassed attack she'd ever been subjected to. The speed was blinding, but it barely even stung. She slapped him across the face and moved back a bit.
"That was f***ing pathetic," she snarled. "You hit like a– is this because I'm a girl?"
"It isn't proper for a man to hit a woman!" Lee proclaimed. Fortunately, the red handprint on his cheek had been put there months before by Tenten, so he didn't feel as much pain as he had the first time. Gai called this 'desensitization', and it was the basis of his training regime.
Her eyes darkening in rage, Sakura abandoned all pretence of planning and charged forward with the speed of a diving falcon. Lee yelped and jumped, her momentum carrying her under him as he precisely drove her face into the ground.
She got up slowly, savouring the feeling of being outsmarted. Brushing the mud out of her no-longer-white robes, Sakura spat out a mouthful of clay. "Clever," she admitted.
"When you wear a forehead protector, you are no longer a woman, but a kunoichi," said Lee. "You have an advantage over me, so I must create my own advantages over you."
From a short distance away, Gai watched his student banter with the pinkette. It was obvious that she was just toying with him, because every time Lee made to advance an attack, she simply ducked out of the way while commenting on ways to improve his technique. Shikamaru was talking to the other groups, so evidently they were on their own.
"Lee," Gai said into his earpiece. "Use the first chakra gate!" It was a dangerous gambit, but one that the experienced ninja was confident in.
Lee's posture radiated confusion, but he nevertheless baited Sakura into overextending. With a small spark of chakra to a well-memorized point in his own brain, Lee's strength multiplied by five... just in time for his fist to crash through her spine entirely. The green-suited lad's face fell, almost comically, but then lit in horror as the girl who really should have been paralyzed from the waist down grabbed his arm and shoved him back.
"Holy s**t!" she screamed, furious. "I can't kill you, but you turn around and do this?" Slowly, her vertebrae were pushing themselves back into alignment, nerve tissue and skin regrowing over the wound. With a sickening jolt Sakura forced herself to stand upright, and in her hands she held a weapon that would do Tenten proud. Gai was already in motion when she swung the scythe, catching the blade with his bare hands and throwing her away.
Sakura righted herself midair, throwing the scythe to the ground and hurling herself back with the metal cord as Gai jumped to shield Lee with himself. When they collided, Sakura's scythe flashed forward with speed that almost matched his own, and Gai drew two kunai to deflected the reaving blade. He suspected it was the width of her swings that slowed her down, which was fortunate for him. Lee jumped around behind her and used the last dregs of his energy to attack. Sakura dodged with unnatural grace and sliced his shirt open neatly. Blood oozed sluggishly from the cut.
"Meh," she pronounced. "I was expecting better."
Gai managed to get behind her guard while she was distracted and literally tore her right arm off. The scythe toppled to the ground, Sakura growling as she was both disarmed and disarmed. She feinted right and attacked low with her tanto, the scythe dragging behind her by the cable, but Gai poured on the speed and tore her other arm off.
As he scooped up the barely conscious Lee, he lamented that his rival's setup had gone so awry. Lee was down, Shikamaru was shouting at Tenten to hurry up, Hinata was directing Kurenai's genjutsu, and Sakura had taken out two genin without even trying. Whatever Kakashi was teaching his students, it was effective.
Rock Lee screamed. While she was down, Sakura managed to lick some of his blood off her scythe by wriggling over to it, and was now lying like a worm in the centre of a circle of blood. Arcane symbols writhed down her robes and across her face, and she was merrily slamming her forehead into the ground over and over again.
Lee screamed again, a small droplet of blood appearing in the middle of his eyebrows, and Gai instantly came to a number of conclusions. One, Sakura could inflict her own injuries on other people. Two, she could function even without the aid of her arms, something he no longer felt even the slightest shred of guilt over anymore. Three, in about five seconds Lee would be facing permanent brain damage.
He could be forgiven for overreacting just a bit when he almost tore her head off her shoulders. At the last second, he realized that it would be counterproductive, as there was every chance she wouldn't care and would probably pass the decapitation on to his student. As he deliberated, holding the armless cultist by the neck, she smiled gruesomely and wrapped both legs around his waist. The cable snapped taut, the scythe connected to her hip holding steady enough for her to rock backwards and hurl Gai away with ease.
Her torso made an excellent corkboard for a brace of kunai, but Gai realized at the peak of his flight that she'd aimed him for the fallen Kiba, and hitting him would probably be fatal. So he spun away, and landed on his head, and after that there was nothing.
This chapter is a bit longer, so I cut it in half. I was torn between making the training situation a faceroll for Team Seven and making it more realistic, and I decided on realistic. It would be much less interesting otherwise. About the fight with Lee, I figured that at this point his weights had already been taken off in preparation for his fight with Sakura.
I'd like to apologize for making everything about Sakura so gory, but at this point she's like a more vicious version of Hidan. I can't make full use of her voodoo doll jutsu otherwise. Nobody is going to die, I promise.
About her parents, I used the canon versions of them. Yes, Mebuki and Kizashi are canon, and yes, Kizashi really makes bad puns. I'm told they make more sense in Japanese.
Also, yes, everything is Chekhov's Gun.
Many thanks to my reviewers!
Up Next:
The fight is concluded, and the results are earth-shattering! And Sasuke makes a friend?